The day started out by going over their morning routine, they said the days of the week, said a prayer, went over the months of the year, etc. After they finished the morning business the class then headed outside for PE. The children were all so excited and so was I! I wanted to see how the teachers handled the children in wheelchairs and how they handled the different capabilities of each child, I didn't know if they would include all of the children.
The teacher had a hard time getting control of the class when they first went outside, which is of course understandable. There were at least 20 children outside and he was only one teacher. I helped him get them a little bit under control and then he had them do some stretching. He tried his best, but the children were way too distracted to be standing in one place! He then sent them on a jog down to the gate of the home and back, it isn't a very long distance, but it was perfect for a warmup!
The teacher then began to group the children and have them run in smaller groups, it was a race! He sorted them based on gender and speed. He also included a wheelchair race where another child pushed the wheelchair while walking, which was a nice thought. The only downside to the races was that not all of the children participated. The teacher made very little effort to get each child a turn. The children are training for the Special Olympics in June, which they are always talking about!
Here are some of the race pictures!
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| The girls getting ready to race! |
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| Here comes Ann Marie! |
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| Boys wheelchair race about to start! |
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| Next is the girls turn! |
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| Njaoki and Kerry Ann finishing strong! |
After the children raced, Mr. Wells then brought out two jump ropes and was teaching the children how to jump rope, or as they called it, "skip rope". Only some of the children received an opportunity to jump and I think only one child was able to jump rope continuously, however all of the children enjoyed watching the others attempt to jump!
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| Colleen gives jump roping a try! The rope was way too short for her :) |
I think that with an adaptive PE teacher to show the teachers how to handle the different needs, the teachers would have a much easier time including the students. And, the students would all be able to do something! I believe that at one point an adaptive PE teacher had visited, but I think it must have been too hard for the teachers to keep up with, or at least they haven't kept up with it! Also, I have recognized how little resources and materials the school has. There are no balls outside for the children to play with, the only equipment that is laying around is an old playground. Also, half of the children at the school don't have a pair of shoes to wear, so very few were actually prepared to run. I am not sure what they do when they go to Special Olympics but I guess that they figure something out!
There was a lot of encouragement going on today and I loved it, the children were all smiles! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Tonight for dinner we had some sort of pasta dish with a salad. I also tried sorrel juice which is a very special drink in Jamaica, though I didn't really like it!
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| The drink comes from this kind of plant! |
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